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Why would someone want to generate electricity
through a giant hydroelectric plant in an area that does not demand that
massive supply? Answer me that question and you can stop reading.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Hakim Joe
Why would someone harness the power of moving liquid
and transform it into a clean and usable energy? The answer is of course for
the electricity that is utilized to operate the multitude of electrical and
electronic devices that we have. Simple answer.
Now comes the harder question. Why would someone want
to generate electricity through a giant hydroelectric plant in an area that
does not demand that massive supply? Answer me that question and you can stop
reading.
The Bakun Hydroelectric Plant (
Seriously though, even the West Malaysians have more
than sufficient electrical energy to run all their electrical components
simultaneously without having to rely on those generated by the
Even the original plan of rerouting the excess
electricity back west through undersea cables was flawed. Yes, hydroelectric
generated power is far cheaper and cleaner than the coal-fired or diesel-fired
plants but when has the Malaysian government ever cared about the pollution
levels in the country? (Even Petronas sells their
cleaner and more expensive petroleum overseas and imports the cheaper high
sulphur petroleum for use locally and the introduction of the environmental
less-unfriendly RON95 was only done this year.) About the only time when they
start caring is when their drivers and bodyguards find it hard to look past the
windshield of their limousines.
Okay, so the West Malaysians do not require this clean
energy here but what about the East Malaysians? Do they not deserve clean fresh
air with their electricity? Well, of course they do but someone’s got to
pollute the environment there and all the smokers and recalcitrant backyard dry
leaves and rubbish burners are just not up to it, hence the intervention of the
government.
To make up for cleaning the air through the production
of clean hydroelectric energy (instead of coal-fired), Putrajaya in partnership
with the Sarawak State Government has plans on the pipeline to retain the
environmental status quo by developing a humungous pollution and toxic fumes
(hydrogen fluoride, sulphur dioxide, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane,
nitrogen dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and
particulate matter PM-10 and PM-2.5) generating, electricity devouring
aluminium smelter within its borders, a really gigantic one judging by its
proposed production capacity of a maximum of 1.5 million tons a year.
Ha! Ha! You guys over there really thought that you
are going to enjoy a breath of clean air, eh? Well, think again!
Oh, by the way, the largest existing aluminium smelter
being built in the world is the Emirates Aluminium (Emal) plant in
Before we start with the serious stuff, let us look at
the damned dam. If anyone reading this article thinks that a dam lasts almost
forever, think again. Hydroelectric plants are not considered a renewable plant
where constant maintenance will keep it going perpetually. (The engineers might
think that their magical skills are all that is required to keep the dam going
on indefinitely but this is a hypothetical scenario as the oldest serving dam
is only 110 years old.)
The water might still flow but the dam cannot be
salvaged after its expected lifespan and require decommissioning. Similar to
our Buatan Malaysia products, they tend to be problematic right past their
expiry date. Concrete under constant pressure fails after a fixed period of
time. Nothing lasts forever and even God does not build things to last forever.
The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD)
predicts a lifespan of 100 years (under present engineering designs) for those
that are not maintained at all and double that for those that are
well-maintained. It goes without saying that these predictions are made with
the clause that the dams exist in a perfect environment. The ICOLD tracks all
large dams (over 100-meters tall) in the world and at least 300 have
experienced accidents. These were not all catastrophic failures, but if you are
an engineer in charge of building an enormous dam, you definitely want to give
some thought to what can go wrong. Remember Murphy’s Law.
Even the World Bank is sceptical of such mega
load-bearing structures that they had stopped financing it completely. Additionally,
if you are a resident living downhill where the dam is situated, you must
seriously want to consider the calibre of Mara graduates. (That was another
joke! To all Mara graduates, “stay cool lah!”)
Maintaining a dam is not easy either. With such a
massive structure and its corresponding parts, a lot of predetermined
inspection periods must be conducted properly and diligently. The powerhouse
equipment can and will suffer a breakdown, the spillways will erode, the steel
pipes might crack, the valves will fail, the retaining concrete wall might also
suffer a crack at the bottom, the water will silt up, the sluice gates might
get jammed, and a hell of a lot of other things can happen like someone might
do a 911 with a hijacked plane or Thor might have forgotten to wear his
bifocals and accidentally strikes it repeatedly (with lightning). Additionally,
did you know that the construction of a large dam can artificially cause
earthquakes to happen in areas previously thought to be seismically inactive? (28
earthquakes were registered in
The most powerful artificially induced earthquake
caused by the construction of a huge dam (over 100-meters in height) is thought
to be the 6.5 tremor that had it epicentre directly under the 103-meter Koyna
Dam reservoir in Maharashtra, Western India in 1967 which flattened the village
of Koynanagar causing 180 deaths. There have been 24 dams which have induced
earthquakes of magnitude 4.4 and above (in recorded history) and in 17 cases,
the tremors occurred within three years of initial Impoundment of the water.
The Bakun Dam is 205 meters high, over twice the 100-metre height regarded by
dam experts as likely to trigger off seismic activities.
The two worst accidents happened in 1963 and 1975 in
Okay, enough of the horror stories let us now look at
the initial profits before construction starts. What? Oh yes, this is one of
those rare construction projects that earns money from the onset. To facilitate
the site being ready, the area surrounding the construction site must initially
be cleared and that means timber. In fact, access roads leading to the site
must be built and that means more timber as the
Enough said. Let us look at the history of the
As a stubborn man who can never accept no for an
answer, TDM revived the US$5.2 billion “deal of the century” project again in
September 1993 and awarded it to Ekran Berhad (without a public tender
exercise) in 1994. (Ekran’s CEO’s wife is the now infamous “I don’t know what
is projected cashflow” former PKA General Manager and PKFZ MD Datin O.C.
Phang.) One of the major shareholders of Ekran is Rasip Harun. Who is he? Rasip
is the business partner of Tun Daim Zainuddin (who happens to be the Finance
Minister at that time). Coincidence? Rasip is also the partner of Robert Tan
Hua Choon (another one of Daim’s business partners) who controlled Jasa Kita
Sdn Bhd, a company involved in the Maika Telekoms share diversion. Remember
Samy’s proxy company Clearway Sdn Bhd? Robert Tan’s driver (Baharuddin M. Arip)
happened to be a director of that company. Rich driver indeed! (Probably comes
to work in a Lamborghini.)
How did a Chinaman from
The story goes like this. Ting Pek Khiing was a
two-bit small time construction subcontractor picking up low-margin
construction jobs in
Ting, whose total knowledge about building a dam can
probably fit on a single line on an A4 paper, hired Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) of
Zurich and Companhia Brasileira de Projetos e Obras (CBPO) of Brazil as the
contractors and formed a construction consortium consisting of Ekran Berhad,
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (
So, how does one go about building a dam? Well, first
you need to clear the land, and I mean “clear the bloody land” and that
includes any indigenous people living there. Wildlife? Get rid of them all.
Foliage and vegetation? Clear them out. Man-made structures? Flatten them.
Timber? Keep and sell them.
Negotiations soon started between the indigenous
people and state government. The almost 9,000 natives will be relocated to
Sungai Asap under the Asap Resettlement Scheme (Operation Exodus) and each
family be given 3 hectares of land gratis. This is of course pending on the
outcome of the EIA report. (The natives eventually received 3 acres each, not 3
hectares as promised – suckers!)
Financing of this massive project was shady, to say
the least. Investment capital was announced as a matter of fact stating only
that the
Let us look at the two main contractors. First, ABB.
Not a very good sign already. This is the same company under the same
management that sold seven gas turbines valued at $500 million for $1 billion
each to
Due payments were then made to Dong-Ah (RM400 million)
for completing the river diversion tunnels, Global Upline (RM60 million) for
completing the auxiliary coffer dams and an undisclosed sum (rumoured to be in
the region of RM1.8 billion) to Ekran as compensation for kicking them out. The
government had also turned over a sum of RM1 billion to the Bakun Dam
Consortium for the purchase of 8 hydropower turbines (the contract eventually
went to IMPSA of Argentina and Alstom of France). BTW, Global Upline belongs to
Ting as well.
IMPSA managing director Juan Aguero later revealed
that they had secured the contract to design, manufacture, assemble and
commission 4 of the 8 turbines at the Bakun project for RM300 million. The math
doesn’t work out correctly, agree? If 4 turbines cost a total of RM300 million,
8 turbines should cost twice that amount, i.e. RM300 million times 2 equals
RM600 million. So, where is the other RM400 million? Maybe the dog ate it or is
this a case of what we call “escalating
inflation”?
In 2000, plans were renewed to revive the project.
Sarawak Hidro, a 100% government-owned company was established to take control
of the construction of the Bakun Dam. The initial plans to transmit the
additional electricity back to West Malaysia was now abandoned as the cabling
project cost more than the remaining construction of the dam.
In 2002, the new main contractor was named. The
Malaysia-China Hydro JV (
Two years later, the engineering consulting firm JR
Knowles of the
Let us leave the construction side of things and
access the feasibility of using the excess energy being churned by the 8
turbines. Here is where the aluminium smelter comes in. Forget about the
non-income generating toxic gases for awhile and concentrate on the electrical
usage. This mega smelter requires 50% of the total electricity produced by the
Bakun Dam and that means a huge and constant income for Sesco (1,200MW at a
selling price of RM0.286 per unit equals RM343.2 million a year. The current
IPP selling price to
As mentioned above, the two suspects in this joint
venture are Rio Tinto (largest aluminium manufacturer in the world) and
Back to the construction site. In 2007, the government
once again revived the cabling project. The new estimates (from
The once revised 500MW capacity is once again back to
the original figure of 2,4000MW with 1,600MW being rerouted back west and the
completion date has been pushed further back by another year. This is done with
the assumption that Rio Tinto would back out of the aluminium smelter deal.
However plans are being drawn to construct yet another dam (the 1,000MW Murum
Dam in the
In 2008, Sime Darby announced that the company will
not be taking up the offer of an equity stake in the Bakun project. This
prompted the government to search for another shareholder and at the beginning
of this year,
The proposed public tender for the undersea cable
laying process is expected to be held next year. The manufacture of these RM4
billion cables was promised to FCW Holdings way back at the onset of the
project by TDM but anything could happen now that the government is under a new
administration. (FCW Holdings is owned by Ting and allegedly also by one of
TDM’s son.)
One last thing, the planning of the dam was conducted
with no public accessibility to vital feasibility studies, no process of public
feedback on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process and limited
consultation procedures with the indigenous peoples. Feasibility studies and
reports commissioned by the government on the Bakun project have been
classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), meaning it is a criminal
offence for anyone to see or use their information. Not all of the appendices,
interim and final reports of the EIAs have been made accessible to the general
public. Project proponents have refused to meet critics in any open
discussion.
Cost overruns? Maybe, but one won’t get to hear about
it as this information is classified (unless MT gets their hands on it). Let’s
just put it this way – if a RM1.8 billion project situated in nearby Klang can
balloon to a staggering RM12.5 billion, what are the chances that a US$5.2
billion (approximately RM26.3 billion) project situated in the middle of the
forest in
Jinxed dam? Perhaps, but one thing is certain – we
(the taxpayers) are damned.